Monday, April 27, 2009

Better watch out for mama bear.

I have a new pet peeve. People that are impatient towards buses.

First, some background. Both of the boys started riding the school bus this year. Ethan gets on at the stop at the corner and then is dropped off at home. Ryan is picked up and dropped off at home. I walk him out, the bus driver walks him to his seat and gets him buckled. Same with drop off, the driver unbuckles him and I wait at the bottom of the bus for him. Ethan gets on and off by himself since there are no buckles (and why is it that there are no seatbelts on a bus?).

Since Ryan is buckled into a car seat, it takes about 1-2 minutes to get him adjusted and for the bus driver to walk back to her seat, buckles herself, shut the door and turn off the lights. I can't tell you how many times people wait at the bus, honking their horns because taking 2 minutes to make sure children are safe & secure is too much to ask. There have been 4-5 times where his bus driver has taken down license plate numbers because they have ignored the red lights & stop sign, paused and then just kept on going. I hope they got a big fat ticket.

So today, I am outside waiting for Ryan to get home. I hear his bus coming and walk down towards the street. I see the bus coming, slowing down, yellow lights on. She comes to a stop in front of our driveway, red lights & stop sign on and then I see a old, beat up, black full size van (if I had the license plate I would post it) coming from the opposite direction, completely oblivious to the bus that is stopped. The bus driver is totally on top of it though and doesn't open the door. I then walk in front of the bus and start yelling at the driver. Hello!! Do you not see the big, bright red lights flashing? He said they were yellow when he passed and that he didn't have to stop. Yellow or not, ever hear of slowing down and yielding to protect our children? Are you in that big of a hurry that you can't slow down and yield to the bus? The lights were on so slow your ass down.So about 10 minutes later, I see a lady walk up to the door and ring the doorbell. I get up to answer and she says she was in the passenger side of the van that I yelled at. Uh huh. Your point? Well, you really scared us when you screamed at us. You were supposed to stop, dumbass. (Ok, I didn't really call her a dumbass to her face but well...)And I didn't scream, I yelled. I am trying to protect my child and get him on and off the bus safely. I don't care if I scared you, at least then you stopped.Well, the lights were yellow. And we were distracted looking for a house number. (She then tried to apologize but really, there is no excuse.)No they weren't and I hope the bus driver got your license plate number and called it in. And if you are distracted enough and don't see or acknowledge a huge bus with bright red lights, then you shouldn't be driving.

I then shut my door.

And I just love it how the man who was driving didn't have the guts to come up and confront me himself or even try to redeem himself to apologize.

Now, I really try to be a nice person and generally, I can be a nice person even if I don't like you (don't tell anyone my secret). I can put up a good front. But, when you mess with my kids or their safety, you better believe that mama bear is gonna come out with claws on.